14:29 – Barbara is taking her mom to a doctor’s appointment this afternoon after which they’ll meet Frances for dinner. Barbara’s bringing me dinner. I’ll probably watch Heartland reruns while I wait. Meanwhile, I’m making up solutions.
Friday, 14 March 2014
26 Comments and discussion on "Friday, 14 March 2014"
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“U.S. to relinquish remaining control over the Internet”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/business/technology/us-to-relinquish-remaining-control-over-the-internet/2014/03/14/0c7472d0-abb5-11e3-adbc-888c8010c799_print.html
Oh this is not good. I foresee domain name rental at $1,000/year and all kinds of issues. I have seven domains at the moment.
See ITU in Geneva for more info on their cost structures (many, many, many bureaucrats):
http://www.itu.int
All just part of the continuing plan. Everything is always right on schedule. Count on it.
All I know is that I am too old to pick cotton on a government farm. They will give me the 150 lb bag, I will pick only 50 lbs and some bureaucrat will shoot me in the back.
My mother in law was expected to pick 50 lbs a day of cotton from age 5 to age 12. Then she was expected to pick 90 lbs per day as a grown woman. My grandfather in law could pick 150 lbs of cotton every day of the week. 200 lbs a day when rain was coming.
Cotton don’t grow up in these parts so I’d be sent out to pick and shuck corn by hand, or bushels of potatoes and apples. If you’re too old, then I am certainly too old, and would be shot sooner than you. I’d tell the bastards to shoot straight and not muck it up. And good riddance.
We had us a semi-blizzard here the other day/night/day and now the temp has rocketed into the low fotties, but it’s been extremely windy all day, from off the lake, with snow blowing more or less continuously. Supposed to stay in the fotties tomorrow and then Sunday we’re back to the teens again. Spring just a week off now, LOL.
Apparently, exactly what international organization should assume control of the DNS root servers is currently unclear and very much open to debate. Given that the entire tech community is riled up about Snowdon’s revelations, if this was going to happen, this is the right time.
The question will be: Can the technical community win a discussion with all of the political organizations that will want to take over here? If DNS goes to the UN, we can expect Saudia Arabia demanding that all photos of women be removed from the internet, Russia forbidding sites criticizing Putin, etc., etc.. On the other hand, if a technical organization takes over, there may be a chance. There could also the the option of distributing the root servers, so that there are multiple copies under control of different organizations – preventing effective censorship by any single organization.
Exciting times lie ahead. Buy popcorn and watch the politicians prostitute themselves in hopes of grabbing control of more power…
Looks like it was either one of the pilots or a highly competent group of hijackers:
http://www.news.com.au/travel/travel-updates/malaysia-airlines-flight-mh370-traced-seven-hours-after-it-went-missing-as-hijacking-becomes-more-likely/story-fnizu68q-1226855485378
“Exciting times lie ahead.”
Indeed, sir. This should be quite entertaining. Later on, events will be quite a bit uglier, however, and the entertainment value approximating nil.
Just saw the same stuff on the nooz that greg did; this is a very strange event, with lots of weirdness going on, not least the stories of passenger and crew cell phones still being active and ringing when family members call them. Another airline expert and pilot, Patrick Smith, who we’ve read and followed for years, says that they’ll eventually find the wreckage out there.
Fotties here today with snowpack shrinking and the dread spectre of Mud Season looms….
Here is a fairly comprehensive look at the logical parameters thus fah associated with the missing aircraft:
http://www.oftwominds.com/blogmar14/flight370-3-14.html
Apparently, exactly what international organization should assume control of the DNS root servers is currently unclear and very much open to debate. Given that the entire tech community is riled up about Snowdon’s revelations, if this was going to happen, this is the right time.
Hey, I had not realized that the NSA was in the running to take over ICANN. Neat! I am guessing that the NSA is an international organization by the number of the people complaining about it.
There could also the the option of distributing the root servers, so that there are multiple copies under control of different organizations – preventing effective censorship by any single organization.
What happens when one organization purposefully changes their copy of the root server? Might be interesting as the other root servers try to sync.
I and a couple of my people continuously get emails from the Chinese register about domains using my WinSim trademark. The email is always written in “you gotta do this now” and “we are doing this as a favor to you” before these other people start using my trademark. It is an amazing email, full of veiled threats, and as usual, they want a couple of grand from me “to help me out”.
I just think it’s freakin’ awesome that all this time a handful of peeps, relatively speaking, have been, and are, in control of the entire world’s internet. We’ve been damn lucky up to now, but if it all goes down the crapper tomorrow, I couldn’t care less. I have a shit-load of books to catch up on and plenty of music to listen to, and all outdoors to explore while I can still ambulate about the countryside.
Of all the things important to the US, relinquishing the Internets is at the bottom of the list. Nobama is a fool, if not intentionally destructive to the US and its interests.
One analysis of the Malaysian flight I heard on NPR is that the triple 7 has had in-flight cracks in the fuselage where the antenna systems are molded in. This plane apparently had modifications made to that area before the fateful flight. So one expert on Boeing planes posited that none of this was intentional. The antenna system suffered in-flight damage that took the transponder out of service. The pilot set a course to return to Malaysia. Further damage and cracks then occurred, which decompressed the plane; pilots and passengers lost consciousness, and like the private jet carrying that golfer, which flew on autopilot until it ran out of fuel, then crashed near the Canadian border, this plane did likewise. If somebody on board really wanted to commit suicide, why fly so far to do it?
But obviously, cell phones would not be working if the plane crashed and sank. So with a glimmer of hope, maybe it was hijacked and landed somewhere. Or it crashed on land, not in the sea, and the phones still work.
So one expert on Boeing planes posited that none of this was intentional. The antenna system suffered in-flight damage that took the transponder out of service.
There is more than one antenna (antenni?) on the craft. All would have to fail. Decompression and the pilots would have enough time to don oxygen as it would take several seconds to fully decompress a plane. I was on a USAF T-39 that blew a door seal at 30k+ feet. It was not instantaneous as all five of us were able to put on the masks that dropped. A quick descent to 10k and all was good.
The reports I have read indicate that the transponder was switched off and the radios were silent. Only radio was pings to satellites for maintenance data.
I think someone with extensive flying knowledge and experience in the 777 took over the flight. Turned off transponder in the center console, radio silence or even turned off, dropped below radar, turned and headed somewhere different. The idea was to lose the plane in deep water as there was something in the cargo bay that was to be eliminated.
I have abolutely nothing to back my theory.
I like Ray’s theory so fah; also noting that a couple of dozen passengers were employees of a large semiconductor firm, that among other things, develops transponders. In my advancing senility I’ve just forgotten its name, of course. But I remember when looking it up they have a history of financial shenanigans, and various ties to governments and the military.
Singular antenna; plural antennae; but most people just say antennas. No, not 1 antenna. The whole assembly of antennae for both transponder and radio communications were affected in previous cracks. Apparently they are all mounted together and the cracks have caused different results in different planes. Now when you are lacking proper antennas, some signal can still get out, and supposedly, a pilot in another plane nearby did get a radio transmission but it was garbled and unintelligible — as would be the case if the antennae were destroyed.
The expert said that in a catastrophic decompression, pilots have about 30 seconds to get oxygen on before they pass out. Happened to both pilot and co-pilot in the golfer incident. That was Payne Stewart in a Learjet 35 back in 1999. IIRC, all occupants of the plane died from lack of oxygen long before the crash.
From a Washington Post article about the Stewart crash: “The Air Force pilots also reported that the Learjet meandered from as low as 22,000 feet to as high as 51,000 feet, but never strayed from a northwest heading.” The Malaysian flight appears to have done the same widely varying altitude dance.
Also, there is no information on anyone among the passengers that any was qualified to handle a 777.
Of all the things important to the US, relinquishing the Internets is at the bottom of the list. Nobama is a fool, if not intentionally destructive to the US and its interests.
But, we just want to be friends to everyone. And, we do not deserve to be the world’s only superpower. In fact, all countries should be superpowers!
Looks like that plane may have gone to Pakistan. I’m sure those friends of ours will give up the plane immediately if they find it.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2581488/It-WAS-hijacked-Malaysian-official-says-CONCLUSIVE-jet-carrying-239-hijacked-35-000-ft-individual-group-significant-flying-experience.html
Lynn and I must read the same nooz sources; I just saw that, too. And mos def that the whole thing was contrived now. They raided the pilots’ homes.
“…we just want to be friends to everyone…”
Only Officially Approved Administration Friends. Not the Russians or the Persians. Which is supremely stupid and short-sighted.
But the Syrian butchers of Christians are OK. And as always, the Wahabi-madrassah-financing Saudi princes. And now our good pals the Vietnamese communists. Some of whom, along with their Pathet Lao allies, gave OFD a few mementos to carry with him for the duration. As our fathers and grandfathers got from the Germans and Japanese, also our great friends now.
The expert said that in a catastrophic decompression, pilots have about 30 seconds to get oxygen on before they pass out. Happened to both pilot and co-pilot in the golfer incident.
I wonder if the availability and accessibility of oxygen is different in a commercial plane than is for a private plane. I have also heard that you have about 30 seconds to get oxygen which would seem like more than enough in the Stewart plane. I am also wondering if perhaps the cabin heat, which is bled from the engines, somehow got compromised with carbon monoxide and they slowly passed out. I would be guessing that an autopsy would have been done on the bodies and any such CO poisoning would have been obvious. I also don’t know if the Stewart plane explosively decompressed say from a large hole which would have evacuated the plane in a very short time.
In my T-39 incident it took a couple of minutes to lose the air pressure, no explosive decompression. We heard the noise, a squeal then a loud pop and a few seconds later the masks dropped. Those two events were enough to scare the crap out of you. I have no idea whether pilots activated the masks or the deployment was automatic. When the masks dropped we immediately started down at a very steep angle. Probably more so than a civilian aircraft as the military does not give a rat’s ass about soldiers and comfort. It was seemed like a few minutes until we were below 10K and removed the masks. Of course my time estimates are probably really warped as I was more than a little frightened. When we landed the pilot was pissed because now he had to spend the night at Nellis AFB while the cabin oxygen system canisters were replaced. He did say that the event was not a big deal as it happened before on that plane. My thought was yeh maybe for you but I am going to have to have surgery to unpucker my asshole.
I have abolutely nothing to back my theory.
Of course my theory falls apart for a couple of reasons. There has been no ransom note.
The idea was to lose the plane in deep water as there was something in the cargo bay that was to be eliminated.
The person(s) that took over the plane would have needed a financial gain. To ditch the plane in deep water negates any use of any financial gain as you would not survive. A terrorist? No one has claimed responsibility and as far as I know only the stupid terrorist (aren’t they all) commit suicide.
Will they find the plane in some foreign country where eventually a ransom is demanded? Doubt it because all contact has been lost and surely someone would have seen the plane.
Was there someone on the plane that some country wanted eliminated? Perhaps however it would be easier to just destroy the entire plane.
This is truly bizarre. Maybe William Shatner was on the wing and Rod Serling is really alive and well.
Actually, “antenna” is one of very, very few words whose plurals differ according to the sense in which the word is used. For antenna in the RF sense, the correct plural is the English “antennas”; for antenna in the insect sense, the plural is the Latin “antennae”.
In my own Army pilot training, everyone gets to experience the altitude chamber. Ten people enter and hook O2 masks to their helmet. They take you to about 30K feet by sucking out the atmosphere. You then take off your O2 mask and are given a couple of puzzles and eye hand tasks. It took me about 80 seconds before a tech snapped my mask back on I was so “drunk”. It’s to know your physical response in hypoxia.
30 seconds seems a little short. A pro pilot should have no problem pulling on an O2 mask, but maybe it failed or it was a “slow leak” like Mr. Ray’s. That’s why we used the altitude chamber, to realize you are entering hypoxia.
There were autopsies done in the Stewart crash. There is — or was — an NTSB web site listing the results of all air crash investigations and the conclusions reached. I remember reading about the Stewart crash, but my memory not being what it once was, I do not recall the specifics or conclusions, nor can I find that website anymore. I read it while we were in Berlin. My vague recollection is that everyone on board died shortly after the decompression. Air force jets flew alongside the Learjet for much of its autopilot flight, and confirmed that windows were fogged over — a sign of sudden decompression.
Isn’t Malaysia where financial tycoon Jim Rogers moved? Lemme look.
No, he moved next door to Singapore. He is always touting how safe that area is, compared to the US.
How in the heck can “a Malaysian government official” — or ANYBODY — tell if the communications devices were turned off manually or suffered loss of antennas? And since autopilots can, and do, execute turns on commercial jets, who is to say it took a pilot’s — or experienced flyer’s — manual efforts to achieve the course change?
If the plane landed in Pakistan, it is inconceivable that somebody did not use a cellphone to communicate with somebody. And after all the hijackings we have had, how in the hell is it possible to manually turn off all radio and navigation equipment? Seems like that would be the first change that would be made after 9-11. But, of course, I probably imagine there is more intelligence involved than there actually is.
Lynn and I must read the same nooz sources….
I have to add a Daily Mail RSS to my list. In this era of newspapers facing significantly declining readership, have not any of them noticed what the Daily Mail is doing? Newspaper competition is TV and Internet video. Pictures! Even the local TV stations around here that repeat their news on the Web, by just posting the scripts as a news source, display generic photos of cop cars, handcuffs, etc. in their news stories, and occasionally a mug shot. Come on! This is the video and picture era! Some weeks back, after the Purdue University shooting of one student by another, the Daily Mail fer Chrissakes, had multiple pictures of both students, some dating back to high school, pictures of the building it happened in, maps of the campus, shots of the houses where each lived, pics of the classrooms they attended.
The local media had exactly . . . NOTHING!
For antenna in the RF sense, the correct plural is the English “antennas”; for antenna in the insect sense, the plural is the Latin “antennae”.
Wow. I have been misusing that for a very long time. Better clean up my act.
Don’t worry about it. Most scientists mispronounce antennae and other Latin plurals to end in a long “E” rather than the proper long “I”. Of course, scientists aren’t nearly as bad at pronouncing Latin words as RC priests are.
There’s classical Latin, i.e., that taught in schools and colleges, and then there’s medieval Latin and medieval Italian, a mix of which seems to be what our clergy use. On a warm Sunday morning it can come dangerously close to putting me right to sleep, very low-key and melodious.
Besides the Daily Mail, RT has pretty good pics, too.
Lynn and I must read the same nooz sources; I just saw that, too. And mos def that the whole thing was contrived now. They raided the pilots’ homes.
http://drudgereport.com/
Best news aggregator in the business, bar none.
There are a couple of UK sites that do almost as well, but yeah, I check drudge daily.
Ah, crucial info in the Daily Mirror: Shah’s wife took the children and left him the day before the ill-fated flight.
http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/world-news/missing-malaysian-airlines-flight-mh370-3248001
Also, people were assuming that if a phone rang before going to voice-mail, the phone was operating. Tech sources say that is not true. Whether the phone rings before voice-mail is not proof that the phones were still operating. I can attest to that with my son’s phone, which is in another area code. We once did an experiment, and I got rings before voice-mail during periods when his phone was definitely shut off and he was right next to me.